Yi Syllable Ngo

It is a Nuosu Yi syllable, written in romanization as ngo.

Nuosu is one of the Yi languages. The syllable's romanized initial “ng” is a nasal sound like the end of “sing,” used at the start here. In Nuosu, the syllable can mean “to feel,” “to cry or weep,” or “cloudy weather”; surrounding words settle the sense. The sequence ꃅꉩ means “overcast sky.”

Yi writing predates digital encoding. One account identifies a bronze-bell inscription dated 1485 as the earliest surviving example it cites; scholars also argue for earlier inscriptions on stone, bronze, pottery, and bone. Traditional Yi texts were copied by bimo, Yi ritual specialists, for religious, magical, medical, and genealogical work.

How did standardized Yi writing develop?

Yi writing grew through regional traditions before a Nuosu standard was established.

Yi writing developed through local traditions: character inventories, shapes, orientation, and writing direction varied by region. This character belongs to the modern Nuosu standard, not to every Yi language.

That standard was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 to support literacy in the Liangshan variety of Nuosu. Cuan and Wei are historical names for Yi script traditions, not alternate names for ꉩ. Traditional Yi ideographs are described as apparently independent of Han (Chinese) ideographs.